It was January 22nd.
Florida came into their matchup with South Carolina as heavy favorites, only to see themselves falling behind early and seeing the deficit grow, and grow, and grow.
Then, the unexpected happened–the Gators sold out with a full court press. It was somewhat of a desperation move considering how much they had fallen behind–somewhat of a hail mary that was likely to fall through the hands of the receiver and fall harmlessly onto the turf. However, that wasn’t the case. Florida started first creating sloppy passes. Then, defelections. Before you knew it, they were creating full on steals that turned into layups on the other end. Suddenly the Gators found themselves back in the game on the back of the full court press, and they ultimately won.
This wasn’t the first instance of Florida using the press, and it wasn’t their last. Against Virginia they mixed it in to confuse an already sputtering offense, and they also tried it with decent success against Missouri as they tried to claw back into a game they ultimately lost. Coming off the success of the press against South Carolina they also deployed it against Georgia which resulted in immediate sloppy turnovers from the Bulldogs, a strategy they went into the game with given the perceived lack of ball handling ability from the Georgia guards.
Florida has already used the press for 55 total possessions, surpassing the 54 possessions of press the team played in 2023-24. The question is, will the press continue and will it be a regular part of Florida’s defensive strategy, or will it just be a novelty they pulled out in a few wins in January?
Before we get into that, let’s talk about the press and why it has been successful. It’s a 1-2-2 press that’s almost more of a three-quarter press than a full court press, but that’s somewhat semantic. Florida generally isn’t looking to trap the initial inbounds pass or guard the inbounder (which would certainly make it a full court press) but is looking to slow down the ball and force soft, looping passes over the head of the press that can result in an opportunity to trap near the three-quarter mark. Florida will generally put Will Richard at the top of the press as opposed to their point guard, and this is due to the length that is required at this spot to be disruptive. You’ll see Richard playing with his hands wide or high as he deters any straight line passes and instead forces lobs over the top. When playing against a press, throwing any kind of lobbed pass can be a death sentence as the longer the time the ball is in the air the more time there is for defensive players to come and trap the ball. That’s where speed comes in–and that’s why Alijah Martin and Walter Clayton are on the second level of the press. Their role is to sprint laterally, trading off who takes away the pass to the middle of the floor depending on where the ball is, and also deterring the pass straight up the sideline. What they are always on alert for is that lobbed pass that goes over the head of Will Richard, because if they see a rainbow pass from one guard to another they are sprinting on the flight of the ball and arriving on the scene to trap. This is where many of the steals have come from and it’s what has given Florida’s opponents fits.
So, will Florida continue to press, will its usage increase, or will it stay a novelty?
In 55 possessions of press this season the Gators are allowing 0.73 points per possession, a fantastic number. On regular, non-pressing possession the Gators are 0.79 PPP as a reference. The other key number here is turnovers forced–in regular half court possessions the Gators are forcing turnovers 15.1% of the time, while when they press they are forcing turnovers 25.5% of the time.
Of course, this leaves out a ton of relevant situational information. When Florida has been forced to press this year they have done so situationally and with only a small sample size, or they have done it in a moment of all-out desperation such as against South Carolina where they had a heightened level of intensity than they would on every half court possession this season. Early returns are good–but looking at just the points per possession isn’t going to be enough here.
If you’re skeptical that Florida is going to be able to play a lot of press moving forward there are a lot of reasons why you could be. Press usage is way down in 2025 than it was in 2020, which was way down from what it was in 2015. As players get more skilled, officiating has tightened up, and multi-year retention has been made more difficult the press has proven to be a nearly impossible strategy to employ on a large scale at the high-major level, at least, with coaches such as Bob Huggins and Rick Pitino that were known for their pressing pulling away from the strategy.
When you go looking for top level high-major teams that use the press as a key part of their defense, you’re simply not going to find many over the last decade. For that reason it’s hard to imagine the Gators being a team that suddenly starts pressing from the opening tip or playing it for close to fourty minutes. It’s not to take away from the success Florida has had with the press this year, but look at the teams that they’ve had success with the press against–Georgia (76th in adjusted offensive efficiency), South Carolina (149th in adjusted offensive efficiency), and Virginia (193rd in adjusted offensive efficiency). Not only are these teams not very good offensively, but they are known for their erratic ball handling and guard play.
The question really comes down to this–is the press ever going to be something that the Gators can use to have success against quality teams, or is it simply going to be something that can be successful against teams like Georgia, South Carolina, and Virginia. Currently the Gators haven’t tried to pull it out for long stretches against top teams in the SEC, and if they do so it will be fascinating to see the results and see if it’s a strategy that could be used down the stretch and into the postseason.
While not a lot of high-major teams have been able to have success pressing in the last decade, basketball is a cyclical sport. The lack of success teams have had pressing means that not many teams use it, and when not many teams use it they become sloppier at playing against it. Part of the reason Florida has had success in the press is that their opponents haven’t played against presses and the players didn’t have the experience which put the advantage in Florida’s hands.
Whatever ends up happening, you can always know that Florida has the press in their toolbox for when they want to change the pace of a game.